A systematic review of the applications of Mendelian randomization assessing the causal relevance of the gut microbiome in human health and disease
Abstract
Objectives: To investigate the current application of Mendelian randomization (MR) in assessing the causal relevance of the gut microbiome in human health and evaluate the quality of these studies. Design: Systematic review Data sources: Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, bioRxiv and medRxiv were searched from inception to the 12th of January 2023. Eligibility criteria: Full-texts and conference abstracts of studies that conducted MR analyses to investigate the causal role of the gut microbiome on any outcome. Methods and analysis: Two independent reviewers screened titles and abstracts, assessed full texts for eligibility, extracted data and assessed study quality. Extracted data included information on authors, hypothesis/rationale, methodology used (including genetic instrumentation decisions and analyses), results and limitations. As no quality assessment tool currently exists for MR studies, the quality of each study was assessed using a series of questions adapted from two previous systematic reviews of MR studies and a comparison with the STROBE-MR guidelines. Results were narratively synthesized, and meta-analyses were conducted, where possible, if the exposure and outcome were comparable (including definition and units) and data sources were appropriately independent across studies. Results: Of the 463 records identified, 66 were eligible for inclusion. We identified 48,082 individual MR estimates of the relationship between 612 gut microbial traits (defined by…
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